Freight-car



(No Model.)

J. R. GATHRIGHT.

FREIGHT GAR.

No. E1828. Patented Mar. 16 1886.

1.7V VEJVTOR .dttorney UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN R. GATHRIGHT, OF JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA.

FREIGHT-CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 337,828, dated March 16, 1886.

Application filed December 24, 1885. Serial No 186,630. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JOHN R. GATHRIGHT, a citizen of the United States, residing at J effersonville, in the county of Clarke and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Freight-Cars; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to cars for carrying freight and general merchandise; and its object is to adapt a car for carrying at one time the usual amount of common freight, and at another time for carrying fluids in bulk, such as coaloi1, whisky, vinegar, &c.

Heretofore it has been found difficult to carry coal-oil for any great distance in a car without the leakage so saturating the wood of the car as to render it unfit for afterward carrying grain, provisions, furniture, and other cleanly merchandise.

In carrying out my object I so divide a freightcar into different compartments that one or more of the compartments may be a complete inclosure for carrying general merchandise, while another compartment may be left entirely open, without roof or sides, so that if an oil-tank be carried therein its overflow from slopping or leakage may run to the ground or evaporate into the open air without coming in contact with either the bottom'or sides of the inclosed adjacent compartments.

To this end my invention consists in the construction and combination of parts forming a freight-car, hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a car, partly broken away, showing my invention. is a plan View of the same, and Fig. 3 is an inverted plan view of the car-body removed from the trucks. Fig. 4 is a detail view, in perspective, of a plate of the truss and a portion of the truss-girders.

A represents the side sills of the car; B, the trucks, and O the bolsters whereby the car is mounted on the trucks.

D D are two compartments, each a complete inclosure, with ends and sides like the common boX or house car. U represents the Fig. 2 l

walls of the adjacent ends of the said compartments. These two compartments are separated by an open space at E, which space is surrounded by the frame-work of the car, and in that space I place an oil-tank or other fluidtauk, F.

To prevent any oil from the tank entering the compartments D, the tank is made small enough to enter the space E without touching any side or-boundary thereof, except the bottom, and the floor of the compartments stops at each end of the said space, the tank resting on cross-ties G, which are supported on girderrods H, that pass over the bolsters O and are secured by screw-nuts to the end crosssills, 1.

While there is no objection to the space E having a floor of its own placed below the level of the compartments D, so that oil cannot run from the former into the latter, such a floor being shown at J, Fig. 1, yet I prefer to dispense with this floor in order that all overflow from the tank may fall between the ties G directly to the ground.

The tank is designed to be complete in itself and bodily removable from the car when the car is needed for a considerable time for other uses than carrying fluids; but in its legitimate service this car will carry a full load of fluid from the place of its production to distant markets; then the return-trip or any convenient portion thereof may be utilized by loading the freight-compartments with any merchandise going that way.

A car of thirty-six feet in length may have two compartments, D, eachthirteen feet long, and leave a central space, E, for a tank that would carry twenty tons of coal-oil.

In order that this weight may be supported atthe center of the car with safety, I have designed a very strong supporting truss, of which the side sills, A, are the tie-beams, and K K are the rafters. These rafters in the present case serve as braces, which rest upon the sills directly over the bolsters, thereby transmitting their load directly to the bolsters, and the cross-ties G, on which the tank rests, are supported by rods L, which hang from the rafters K. These hangers L are screw-th readed and provided with screw-nuts M, which bind rigidly upon both the top and bottom of each rafter K and each side sill, A. By this rafters and secured to end plates, 0 and P, by

screw-nuts.

, A car thus constructed will stand a great amount of abuse from endwise bumping without its sills buckling either up or down, and will support any load which the trucks can carry.

To prevent sidewise buckling, I place crossbeams Q between the sills at each end of the space E, and unite the corners by cast-iron braces R, shaped to receive between themthe rounded corners of the tank. I also provide cross-ties S to bind the sills to the beams Q. The side stringers or plates, T, extend the whole length of the car.

By using thin steel plate a tank may be made to weigh only eighteen hundred pounds capable of carrying twenty tons of oil at a load. Should the sides of the tank tend to bulge, they may be stayed by internal crossties in the manner common to boiler-work,

To keep the tank rigidly in its seat, I provide a spider-yoke, U, and braces V. I By this plan of construction cars of equal weight may be made stronger than common cars, or cars equally strong may be made lighter than common cars.

It is evident that a single closed compartment in the middle of the car and an open space at each end thereof without a floor, or

with a drop-floor to carry fluid-tanks, would be an equivalent to the construction hereinbefore described, though it would not be as mechanical nor as economical in construction;

What I claim as myinvention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, in afreight-car, of side sills extending the length thereof, two boxcompartments fixed upon the sills and separated by an open space, the floors of the said compartments stopping at the said open space,

cross-ties in the said space below the level of the said compartment-floors, and rods connecting the said cross-ties with the said sills, substantially as shown and described;

2. In a freight-car, the combination of two side sills extending the length of the car, two compartments, each having'ends, sides, and a floor independent 'of and separated from the other by an open space between the sills, a floor to the said open space lower than the level of the said compartment-floors, and rods connecting the space-floor with the car-sills, substantially as shown and described.

3. The combination, in a car, of two compartments separated by an open space, trusses along the sides of the space joining the compartments, a floor to the space supported by the trusses below the level of the compartmentfloors, and a fluid-tank shaped to loosely fit the. said space, substantially as shown and de scribed.

4. The combination of the sills A,the rafters.

K, resting thereon as braces, and the screwthreaded rods L, each provided with screwnuts M, adapted to engage both the upper and 5. The combination of two separate compartments, D, the side sills, A, supporting them, cross-ties G in the space between thecompartments and lower than the level of their floors, the rafters K,meeting at the center andresting their extreme ends on the sills, the hanger-rods L, connecting the rafters, the sills, and the ties G, and the screw-nuts M,

threaded on the said rods, substantially as lower sides of the rafters and sills, substantially as shown and described. 

